ABIDJAN: Burkina Faso’s ruling military leader on Friday dismissed the country’s prime minister and dissolved the government, according to a presidential decree transmitted to AFP.
The sacked premier had served at the head of three successive governments, surviving each reshuffle.
No reason was given for the dismissal of Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela, who was named as premier in October 2022 after the coup that brought Captain Ibrahim Traore to power.
“The prime minister’s official functions are terminated,” said the decree, adding that members of the dissolved government would “carry out ongoing business until the formation of a new government.”
The west African country was plunged into instability by a January 2022 coup in which Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba seized power.
Little more than eight months later, Damiba himself was overthrown by Traore, 36, who now heads the junta regime.
Damiba, who ousted elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore, is currently in exile in neighboring Togo.
The junta has made the return of national sovereignty one of its priorities and regularly hits out against Western powers.
Burkina Faso has allied with fellow Sahel nations Mali and Niger, which are also led by military juntas following a string of coups since 2020.
The three nations joined together last September under the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), after severing ties with former colonial ruler France and pivoting toward Russia.
Burkina Faso was a French colony for the first half of the 20th century, and relations have soured with Paris following the 2022 coup.
Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore last month said Burkina Faso’s cooperation with Russia “better suited” his country than its historic ties with France.
Along with Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso announced in January they were turning their backs on the Economic Community of West African States – ECOWAS – an organization they accused of being manipulated by Paris.
The three neighbors are all battling jihadist violence that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.
In Burkina Faso, about two million people have been forced to flee their homes by the conflict, which has killed more than 26,000 people since 2015, including soldiers and civilians, according to monitoring group ACLED.
Moscow has sent military instructors there – as well as to several other African countries – to help in the fight against Islamist violence.
Burkina Faso junta chief dissolves government
https://arab.news/5fn5y
Burkina Faso junta chief dissolves government
- Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela had served at the head of three successive governments, surviving each reshuffle
- No reason was given for his dismissal, who was named as premier in October 2022 after the coup
Uganda partially restores internet after president wins 7th term
- “The internet shutdown implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities ... it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report
KAMPALA: Ugandan authorities have partially restored internet services late after 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term to extend his rule into a fifth decade with a landslide victory rejected by the opposition.
Users reported being able to reconnect to the internet and some internet service providers sent out a message to customers saying the regulator had ordered them to restore services excluding social media.
“We have restored internet so that businesses that rely on internet can resume work,” David Birungi, spokesperson for Airtel Uganda, one of the country’s biggest telecom companies said. He added that the state communications regulator had ordered that social media remain shut down.
The state-run Uganda Communications Commission said it had cut off internet to curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks.” The opposition, however, criticized the move saying it was to cement control over the electoral process and guarantee a win for the incumbent.
The electoral body in the East African country on Saturday declared Museveni the winner of Thursday’s poll with 71.6 percent of the vote, while his rival pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine was credited with 24 percent of the vote.
A joint report from an election observer team from the African Union and other regional blocs criticized the involvement of the military in the election and the authorities’ decision to cut off internet.
“The internet shutdown implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities ... it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report.
In power since 1986 and currently Africa’s third longest-ruling head of state, Museveni’s latest win means he will have been in power for nearly half a century when his new term ends in 2031.
He is widely thought to be preparing his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to take over from him. Kainerugaba is currently head of the military and has expressed presidential ambitions.
Wine, who was taking on Museveni for a second time, has rejected the results of the latest vote and alleged mass fraud during the election.
Scattered opposition protests broke out late on Saturday after results were announced, according to a witness and police.
In Magere, a suburb in Kampala’s north where Wine lives, a group of youths burned tires and erected barricades in the road prompting police to respond with tear gas.
Police spokesperson Racheal Kawala said the protests had been quashed and that arrests were made but said the number of those detained would be released later.
Wine’s whereabouts were unknown early on Sunday after he said in a post on X he had escaped a raid by the military on his home. People close to him said he remained at an undisclosed location in Uganda. Wine was briefly held under house arrest following the previous election in 2021.
Wine has said hundreds of his supporters were detained during the months leading up to the vote and that others have been tortured.
Government officials have denied those allegations and say those who have been detained have violated the law and will be put through due process.
